A former Tuscaloosa County Schools bus driver pleaded guilty Monday to having a sexual relationship with a student.

Hollie Thomas, 39, was sentenced to five years in prison, but was granted three years of supervised probation. She will not be incarcerated unless she violates probation.

The Tuscaloosa County District Attorney’s Office recommended the probation as part of a plea agreement, according to court records.

Thomas was ordered to have no contact with the male student, who was 17 at the time. She will be required to register as a sex offender.

The student’s parents contacted the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff’s Office in June 2011 to report the relationship, former Sheriff Ted Sexton said when Thomas was arrested in July 2011.

Deputies investigating the case found the student at her home, he said. She confessed to multiple encounters during an interview with investigators, Sexton said.

The age of consent in Alabama is 16. Thomas was charged under a law passed in 2010 that makes it a crime for a school system employee to engage in a sexual act with a student younger than 19, regardless of whether the student consents.